A focus on students

It is suggested that baccalaureate engineering graduates must be educated to think across a variety of disciplines functionally (lateral thinking) as well as in terms of disciplinary depth (vertical thinking); couple experience with abstract descriptions; develop ideas and implement them; understand the functional core of the engineering process; experiment with both research and design and understand their synergy; analyze and synthesize; formulate problems and solve them; act both independently and as a team member; and recognize, contribute to, and enjoy the relationship of the engineering enterprise to the social/economical/political context in which they live and work. It is further suggested that to achieve this end, emphasis in engineering education must shift from a dedication to course content to a more comprehensive view, focusing on the development of human resources and the broader educational experience in which the individual parts are connected and integrated